A New Aiden
by inkeepingsecrets
Summary: CHECK OUT! hanya.in.wonderland is taking over this fic! Go to her profile for more info.
1. Chapter 1

After the victory of the Golden Army over the races of Man, Prince Nuada ascended a new thrown

A/N: A Nuada/OC fic, yay! Let me know what you think.

UPDATE: I have changed the Lestari's name to Maria. I was told Lestari sounded too elven and I am inclined to agree. Something more human is much moresuiting.

Disclaimer: I don't own Nuada or anything else related to Hellboy.

After the victory of the Golden Army over the races of Man, Prince Nuada ascended a new thrown. Not that false throne from which his father presided on the day of his death. That seat had once been a place of awe and reverence. But it had become a wretched thing, demoralized by the advance of human avarice and the diminishment of the Realm. This was not the throne of the King of the Unseen Realm. This was a throne for the King of a new world. A New Aiden.

In the months following King Nuada's ascension to power the genocide of the human race took place. The world did not fall in a day, it took months of battle to subdue and eliminate the human opposition. Millions of people died, not just soldiers, but families in their homes, school children, the elderly. The Golden Army showed no mercy. After the final battle the Army was decommissioned. The human race had been reduced to a more manageable size, now it was left to the Elves, the highest in the hierarchy of magical creatures, to sift through the survivors and decide their fate.

Nuada was a warrior king. Rather than don the tradition royal garb of his father, he chose to retain his battle armor. He led the Golden Army in battle and presided over the raids following the war. After the war ended, humans were required to report to stations set up by Nuada's army. There they were registered and assigned work placements. They were slaves. Rebels still hid deep within the fallen cities of Man. The wilderness was slowly taking back the land which had been dominated by mankind. The cities which were once the buzzing metropolises of the planet were now abandoned and the elves and other magical creatures inhabited the wilderness. After a few months most of the rebels were discovered. They were either enslaved or killed.

It was during one such raid that Maria Black and her family were uncovered in their hiding place, the basement of a dilapidated skyscraper. Normally Nuada would not be a part of a mission as routine as a raid, but he felt it his duty to audit the performance and effectiveness of these raids. He approached this raid as he did any other, with an air of indifference and boredom. Compared to the action of war, a simple raid was nothing. In these later days they rarely found anything.

Nuada set out from his palace compound, located in the heart of an ancient forest, on the back of his noble horse, Nimrael. Nimrael shared the immortal blood of the Elven race and had been Nuada's constant companion in times of war and peace since the King's coming of age. His gleaming coat of silver-gray hair was dazzling to mortal eyes. Nuada rode from the palace to a military outpost on the outskirts of the forest where he met up with the team assigned to raid in a nearby city. From there they traveled together and thoroughly scoured a sector of the fallen city. It was not until late in the day when the elves approached a building with the sense of foreboding that told them they would find something there. Once inside the skyscraper it did not take the elves long to locate the hidden inhabitants. Their heightened sense of intuition aided them in their search.

Since the war began the Black family had fled from village to village, and finally city to city, searching for a safe place, somewhere the monsters could not find them. In their current residence they had been settled for nearly four weeks, and were beginning to feel that it was either time to move on, or time to settle in. Unfortunately for the Blacks, they had remained in a state of indecision for too long, and now they were out of luck.

Maria sat with her mother and father around a makeshift coffee table. During the day the family stayed inside, fearing the raids which they knew to take place. It was late in the day, though the family had yet to take their meager dinner of bread and canned vegetables. The shapes that appeared from the shadows at the other end of the basement were unreal. It was like a dream to see the tall, pale, glowing forms of the creatures they had most feared. Maria noticed them first. And then everything went black.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: I don't own Hellboy etc

A/N: I don't own Hellboy etc. etc.

Also, I changed Lestari's name to Maria. I was told Lestari sounded too elven and I'm inclined to agree. Enjoy!

Nuada and his men stepped silently into the vast underground basement. There was nothing hiding the humans from view. There they sat around a table, a perfect picture of domesticity surrounded by darkness. His eyes glanced over the aging mother and father but were caught on the figure of the young woman. She could not be more than twenty years old if his judgment of human age was accurate. She wore her long, dark blond hair in a neat braid. Her bright green eyes stood out against her pale pink, human skin. She was the first of the family to sense their presence. Her eyes met his for a second before the soldiers sent in the gas.

It was merely a sleeping gas contained in small, round golden capsules which were rolled toward the scene. The capsules opened up and emitted their soporific vapors. Conveniently the gas had no effect on creatures of magical inheritance. The elves stood half in shadow and watched as the human's eyes drooped shut and their bodies slumped to the floor. It was much easier to determine their fate this way, without needless begging and painful platitudes. Humans would say and do anything if they thought it would save their life.

Nuada led his men toward the sleeping figures. He looked disdainfully down at the two parents and a soldier named Rumon spoke his own thoughts.

"They're too old to be of any real use."

"I agree," Nuada replied in his deep, unsettling voice, "and the fact that they have remained hidden for so long might stir rebellion among the other slaves."

"Should we terminate the lot of them, then?" another solider asked.

Nuada stepped over the parents' bodies and leaned down to gaze at the girl's face. In sleep she wore an expression of such innocence.

"No," Nuada said absently as he continued to stare at the girl. "No, I want this one…for my own. I think she will please me greatly."

The soldiers glanced at each other and then at their king and commander. It was not unheard of in these days for an elf to take a human slave for _personal_ service, but it was still rare enough to cause some surprise.

"Of course, of course, my King," spoke one brave soldier after a moment of silence. Nuada did not seem to pick up on his men's feelings and so he stood up briskly, wishing they would get on with the business so that he might take the girl back.

The parents were killed in their sleep by the smart blades of elven swords. Nuada held the girl in his arms as her parents' blood pooled onto the floor. The few belongings the humans had with them were gathered together to be destroyed. When the business was done the soldiers left the building with a sense of grief which always followed a raid like this one. This killing would not be necessary if not for the humans' greed.

Light slowly filtered through Maria's eyelids, stirring her from sleep. Gradually she opened her eyes, squinting against the blinding light that invaded her senses. It took her a moment to get her bearings, and a moment longer to remember what had happened before the heaviness of artificial sleep had claimed her. Then panic set in, so deep into her bones that she felt she could not move. It felt like an eternity before she was able to process logical thoughts. Where was she? The room around her looked like nothing she'd seen. The walls were covered in a pale gold design; the tall windows were adorned by the most delicate pale green curtains; a crystal chandelier hung from the ceiling above her. This was a far cry from the dreary basement she had lived in with her parents for the last month, and surely if she was captured she would not be held in such luxurious quarters. The sound of movement to her right put an end to her idle contemplation and brought back the sense of fear and panic which had at first enveloped her.

Maria's fear increased tenfold as a tall, pale elf with piercing golden eyes stepped into her view. She recognized those eyes, they were the ones she'd seen just before the darkness had taken her. She wanted to scream, but all that came from her mouth was a sort of choked coughing sound.

"Tsk. You must be thirsty, little one. I've heard that the gas can cause the throat to dry up. Here, have some water," despite the kindness these words seemed to convey, the voice which spoke them was so unworldly to Maria that it increased her panic even more. Her eyes darted wildly around the room and she scrambled into a sitting position and tried to lunge herself away from her captor.

Nuada's laid his hands on the girl's shoulders and pinned her down firmly.

"Shhh, I know you must be very confused, but you must remain where you are. The gas tends to drain energy and I fear if you were to try to stand you might hurt yourself."

As Maria relented to Nuada's force she began to feel the truth of his words. Every muscle felt weak and sore. Despite her overwhelming fear, Maria relaxed into the cushions of the couch on which she lay.

"There, that's better," Nuada spoke in what, from him, must have been a comforting tone. He moved to the side, out of Maria's line of sight for a second, and came back with a tall glass of water. Maria was reluctant to accept anything from this creature but her body screamed for hydration and so she accepted the water that he tipped slowly into her mouth. For a moment she simply sat there staring alternatively at him and at her lap. His gaze was too intense to hold on to for any length of time. Finally she had the courage to speak.

"Where am I?" she asked. "Where are my parents?"


	3. NOTE!

So….Hi.

I've been seeing a lot of "favorites" in my inbox that have been making me feel REALLY guilty. I know I'm a bit of an abandon-er when it comes to fanfiction.

So! Does anyone love this story enough to finish it? I know that I don't have the time to do it myself, but if you're interested in keeping it alive send me an e-mail: inkeepingsecrets3 AT gmail DOT com, with a sample of your writing (another story, one-shot or multi-chap).

Again…sorry for being a bad updater!

-Chelsea


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